Lothian players featured prominently in the later stages of this year’s Yonex East of Scotland Gold Championships which took place at the Jack Kane Centre over the Easter weekend. It was a good weekend to be indoors as unseasonal winter showers and storm ‘Dave’ raged outside. Although slightly down on the exceptional entry last season, we still had a good entry with players taking part from Orkney in the north of
Scotland to Carlisle in the north of England.
There was a particularly large entry in the men’s singles and although there were some upsets along the way, the final featured the top two seeds, Danny Robson and Angus Meldrum, who had won the title two years ago. This was the outstanding final of the tournament, lasting one minute under an hour. Angus won the first game but Danny fought back to take the second and although trailing for most of the third game, eventually ran out the winner, 13-21 21-17 21-18 to secure his first East of Scotland title.
The women’s singles final featured the top seed, Sophie Ford and Lothian player, Qing Yang Xiao who had beaten the 2nd seed, Jaagruti Mannem 24-22 in the third game in the semi final. Sophie proved too strong in the final, running out the winner by 21-14 / 21-11.
In the men’s doubles, the results went according to seeding with Callum Crangle and Calum Flockhart taking the title by defeating Lothian players Richard Adams and Torben Trapp 21-9 21-10.
In contrast, the women’s doubles final was contested by two unseeded couples with Amy Craig and Madelyn Geng winning a very close and competitive match against Jody Groundwater and Yin Luo 21-9 / 17-21 / 21-16.
The mixed doubles final was an all Lothian affair with two unseeded couples making it through. In a competitive match, Torben Trapp, playing his second final of the day, and Tsui-Yee Lau ran out deserved winners against Alastair Campbell and Rachel Maclean by 21-12 / 21-19.
The consolation events for players who lost their first match in the main event, again provided some very competitive matches. The winners of the consolation events were:
Men’s singles – Jiang Xiaozhu
Women’s singles – Xuan Zhao
Men’s doubles – Gregor Brunton and Jacob Glass
Mixed doubles – Euan Campbell and Lanna Campbell
Complete results from the tournament can be found at Yonex East of Scotland Gold Championships 2026
Prizes were presented by Lothian’s local hero and triple world Masters champion, Christine Black. Tournament Referee and current Badminton Scotland President, Colin Campbell, thanked the Court Officials of Badminton Scotland and the staff at Jack Kane Centre who go out of their way to help the event run smoothly. It was noted that the conduct of the players, as well as the excellent quality of their play, was exceptional throughout the weekend. He also expressed his thanks to Yonex for their ongoing and hugely appreciated support of the event as well as the continuing support from Gannon Sports who once again provide the prizes for the consolation events.
We are also very grateful to the City of Edinburgh Council for the additional support which they have provided to several of our events this season. This support provides a huge assistance in making these events viable.
